


The Witch and The Wolf

by fabulousfanficfairy



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Elentober 2019, Fortune Telling, Inktober 2019, Stardust - Freeform, Tea, Witch - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-12
Packaged: 2020-11-22 03:54:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 8,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20867768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fabulousfanficfairy/pseuds/fabulousfanficfairy
Summary: Keith is a witch, living in a forest. One day, he happens upon a mysterious boy. The become friends, until one day Keith learns a dangerous secret about the boy.





	1. Tea and Stardust

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! This is my work for Inktober2019, and I'm using the prompts from @elentori on instagram. I am really excited about this story and can't wait to see how it turns out.

Pidge poked at the dregs of their tea with a stick, while Keith finished sipping his. Their mouth was pulled down into a frown as they shifted the mess around in their tea cup.  
Watching his friend read the dregs, Keith smiled. “What are you finding that’s so bad.”  
Pidge looked up, with a completely serious expression on their face. “I think I’m going to loose the next game of poker against Hunk.”  
Keith laughed, having expected something much more serious. “Then don’t bet a lot on the game.”  
“That’s not how this works. We always bet a lot, I’m just the better player.”  
Keith snickered, then quickly finished his tea to avoid Pidge’s glare. “Alright, fortune teller, what do you make of this?” He passed the tea cup across the table, careful not to mix up the dregs, and watched as Pidge quickly snatched it up.  
It was several moments before Pidge spoke, but they had a mischievous smile on their face. “You got some good dregs, my man. Really good. I can’t tell you the specifics, because that will mess up the future and then this whole reading would be a moot point. But, there are some good things coming your way, designed by the universe. Which makes sense, because I’ve found some cosmic discrepancies in other cups of tea, so the universe is a lot more present in fate right now than it usually is.”  
“Cosmic discrepancies?”  
Pidge looked up for the cup, glaring. “Don’t interrupt me. You’ll find out soon enough. You should know by now that specifics don’t fit well in any of my tea cups. Anyway, as I was saying, the cosmos have something very specific in store for you. I can’t tell you very much about it and risk pissing off the universe, but just don’t do anything stupid. You’ll be faced with unique situations in this next period of time, and you gotta handle them carefully.”  
“You got all that from a tea cup?”  
Pidge set the cup down with a clang, and glared across the table at Keith. “Don’t disrespect my readings.”  
“I know, but you got all that from mine and the results of a poker game from yours.”  
Pidge shrugged, readjusting their glasses. “I don’t make the fortunes, I just read them."  
“Alright. Well, thanks for the tea and the reading. I should get going.” Keith stood to leave, and Pidge quickly hopped up as well.  
“Aren’t you forgetting something? Tea leaves aren’t free you know.”  
“I was hoping you’d forget. Here you go.” Chuckling, Keith slid a small bottle of stardust across the table at Pidge. “Don’t use it all at once, this stuff is from the equinox. So it’s twice as powerful as typical dust.”  
Pocketing the jar, Pidge smiled. “That’s why you’re my dust dealer. Now maybe I can get my brother’s stupid crystal ball to tell me more than village gossip a year in advance.”  
Keith laughed, and left Pidge’s small house. He strolled slowly through the village, waving at people as he passed by. Finally, he made it to the forest, where his small cottage was. Being all alone, surrounded by trees, was one of the most relaxing things for Keith. It was peaceful, serene, and there was no one to pick fights with you.


	2. Black Hole

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith wakes up to realize that the entire sky is gone, and goes looking for answers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm getting behind on my chapters already!!! But I hope you like this one. I'm really planning on catching up (and maybe getting ahead?? But don't bet on that) this weekend. <3

When Keith woke up, it was completely dark outside. Not even moonlight came through his open shutters.   
“That’s weird.” He mused. “I thought it was the final full moon tonight.”   
Looking out the window Keith saw that not only was there no moonlight, there was no moon at all. There also were no stars, clouds, or anything at all visible in the sky. He pushed the blankets off of his lap, and quickly slid on his boots. Not even pausing to properly lace them up, Keith grabbed a cloak and ran out the door.  
Being outside changed nothing about the odd environment. In fact, it made it even stranger. Despite the fact that there was no light coming from the sky, Keith realized that he could clearly see the trees around him. He realized that he hadn’t had to fumble around to find his boots and cloak, but could see them as easily as if the moon was at its brightest. But no visible light source could be attributed to the fact that the forest around Keith was well lit.   
“What in the world..” Keith muttered, already turning back to his cottage. However, instead of going back to sleep, Keith quickly lit a lantern and started pulling out books. It only took him a few minutes to realize that, while he had several volumes on lore and creatures associated with astronomy, he had very little information on astrology itself. Besides the basic volumes, he typically went to Pidge if he needed to know something about the alignment of the stars. Pidge’s whole focus was astrology and reading the universe- Keith spent most of his time with plants and things of the earth.   
‘If I try to visit them now, there’ll be hell to pay. But if I wait until the morning, then they won’t be able to see all of this weirdness. Guess I’ll have to wake the gremlin up,’ thought Keith, as he shelved the books he’d been leafing through. Without even changing into a proper tunic, Keith made his way outside once again to go bother his friend in the village.   
It only took him a few minutes of speed walking to make it to the village. He’d feel bad later about the plants that he probably stepped on in his rush, but he knew how to heal them anyway. The fact that the sky was so messed up seemed a little more important at the moment anyway.  
Keith only had to bang on Pidge’s door once before it swung open. The main room was already fully lit with candles burning in each corner.  
“Huh. I thought for sure you’d be asleep,” mused Keith.  
“Why? It’s not even that late? I’ve still got a solid four hours until dawn.”  
Keith laughed, and then remembered his rush to get here. “Pidge, something’s wrong and I can’t figure it out.”  
Pidge’s face immediately dropped into a concerned expression. “What happened?”  
Instead of answering, Keith just pulled Pidge into the street and pointed to the sky. “They’re all gone.”  
Cocking their head, trying to figure out what Keith was pointing to, Pidge frowned. “What’s gone?”  
“What do you mean ‘what’s gone’? The moon, the stars, the clouds. Everything that should be there isn’t!”  
Pidge turned carefully to Keith. “There all there. But the fact that you can’t see anything is concerning. You need to go see Coran.”  
Keith huffed. “The creepy doctor guy? I’m not crazy!”  
Pidge just smiled. “Yeah, he’s much more than a doctor. He’s probably the wisest guy around. He taught me a lot of what I know. Well, maybe not a lot, but a fair amount. He’ll definitely know about this.”  
“Are you sure.”  
Pidge was already stepping back towards their home. “Yes, I’m sure. Now let me go to sleep.”   
Keith smiled at Pidge’s receding back, choosing not to comment on Pidge’s angry muttering about how he bothered her so late.

By the time Keith got to Coran’s house, the world was getting a little brighter. Keith knew that at this point he should be able to see the sun low on the horizon, but the sun had stayed just as black as it had been during the night. Coran, who was known by the people of the village to quite eccentric although good hearted, lived a few miles away from the village. Unfortunately, he lived in the opposite direction from the village as Keith, towards the small mountain range to the West. Getting to his house took Keith uphill for at least a mile. Keith was breathing hard by the time he got there, and he regretted running the first two miles.  
Because Coran lived in the stone hills, his stone house almost blended into the landscape. He would have passed it had he not heard, “Why you quiznaking mice!” screamed from inside.  
When Keith went to knock gently on the door, it swung open, to reveal the orange moustached man chasing two mice, both of whom were toting small jars.   
“I was going to share that with you anyway!”  
Keith snickered, watching the mice slip through a hole in the wall. Coran spun around, and all of his apparent anger disappeared.  
“Oh! My dear boy! What brings you to this neck of the woods?”  
“I need your help. There’s something wrong with the sky, but I think I’m the only one that can see it.”  
“What seems to be the matter with it?” Coran pushed his way past Keith into the early morning light. He stared directly into the part of the sky where Keith assumed the sun would be, and turned back around blinking quickly. “Well, the sun is definitely still there and burning strong.”  
Keith shook his head, frustrated. “But it’s not! I can’t see the sun, or anything in the sky for that matter. There were no stars last night, or moon, or clouds. It’s just gone!”  
Coran turned back around once more to double check that the sky was still there, and then gestured for Keith to follow him back inside. While Keith was growing more anxious about the sky by the second, Coran was perfectly calm. He took his time pouring two cups of coffee, stirring in cream and sugar, and bringing them to the table.  
“Well, that’s interesting. The sky typically does not do that.”  
“You mean the sky typically doesn’t just disappear out of nowhere?! Of course not!”  
Coran smiled, twisting the ends of his moustache. “No. I mean, the sky typically doesn’t just disappear for just one person. For entire civilizations, yes, but never just one man. At least, there’s no record of it.”  
After almost having to spit out the overly sweet coffee, Keith groaned. It was going to take him forever to figure out what was happening. “So you don’t know either, then. Well, sorry to waste your time.”  
Coran grabbed Keith’s arm as Keith started to stand. “Cool your jets. Of course I know, it’s just going to take me a minute. This could mean a lot of different things, you know. Stay here, and I’ll be back in a jiff!”  
Coran jumped up, and hurried excitedly into the next room. Keith could hear clatters and occasional thumps as Coran searched for something.   
“Now where did it go?” Coran mused, before calling into the kitchen area, “It may take a minute but I’ll find it!”  
“Find what?” Keith muttered, slumping down in his seat. Now that he’d been sitting for a while, the effects of only getting half of a nights sleep and walking several miles was starting to get to him. So much so that he almost thought he was dreaming when four pastel mice climbed up the table and started drinking his coffee. “Well, at least you like how sweet it is.”

The mice had finished Keith’s drink, and had started in on Coran’s cup, when Coran finally shouted, “Aha! I found it.”  
The mice all immediately backed away from Coran’s cup, and started pretending they had just finished Keith’s.  
“Ah, you can’t fool me. I know you’ve been drinking my coffee- go ahead and finish it! There's plenty left on the stove for me.”   
As the mice happily sipped at the drink, Coran took his time flipping through the old book he had pulled out. “Ah, yes, here we are. This is the Almanac of the Sky, written my Great Pop-Pop Wimbleton! He says here that a large group of people seeing the entire sky go dark is typically a precursor to destruction. It is the Universe’s way of saying “Quiznak you!” when they are being overly harmful to the earth. However, for such an event to happen to an individual person means just the opposite. The witnessing of a black hole, as an empty sky is called, is rather the Universe’s way of making its presence known before an event designed by it, the Universe, happens.”  
Coran smiled, and slammed the book shut. “Well, there you have it!”  
“Have what? That is ridiculously vague.”  
“Oh ho ho, isn’t it always? Well then, I have some research to be attending to. Have a safe trip down the mountain!”  
And with that, Coran helped Keith out the door and on his way back down the mountain.


	3. Harvest Moon Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith is walking in the woods and stumbles upon something weird. Additionally, the Universe is still using the sky to send messages to Keith.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got SO behind on my writing schedule! But, I had a fun weekend so I guess it was worth it. Hopefully I can catch up this week. And, if it helps, this did end up being a fairly long chapter.

By the time Keith made it back home, the darkness in the sky was slowly starting to recede. The sky was becoming a bluish-black tiny, and Keith could make out where the sun was supposed to be based on the fact that the sky was substantially brighter in one area. It still didn’t look anywhere near normal, but it was starting to get there.

‘ _ Huh. I guess the Universe has made its point, now that Coran told me what’s going on _ .’ Keith smiled mischievously, and then tilted his head to the sky.

“Thanks, Universe, for letting me see the sky again!”

After yelling his message to the universe, Keith pushed open his door and slumped into a chair.

“You really shouldn’t leave your door unlocked, kid.” Shiro’s voice made Keith jump out of his chair, and practically out of his skin.

“Frick, man. Don’t do that!”

Shiro smiled, standing up from where he’d been sitting on the bed. “Lock your door, then. Anyway, the village is having a celebration for the harvest moon tonight- you’re coming, right?”

“Isn’t that supposed to happen the night of the full moon, not a full night after?”

“Yes, but I think the women in the village had their moon calendar off or something, so it’s tonight.”

“Fine, I guess I’m coming. I think I promised Pidge I would.”

Shiro smiled, and put his hand on Keith’s shoulder. “Well, I’ll see you there. But for now, you should get some sleep. You look really tired, and distracted.”

“Yeah, I guess I am. Thanks, Shiro.”

Shiro smiled. On his way out the door, he said, “get some good sleep. I expect to see you participate in the celebrations this year.”

Keith smiled, and waited until he couldn’t hear Shiro’s receding footsteps crunching in the leaves anymore. Then he grabbed a chunk of bread, and headed out the door. He went in the opposite direction as the village, and headed deeper into the forest. While he could feel the effects of a very short nights sleep and a long hike working in his muscles, Keith’s mind was far too busy to sleep.

Looking up through the trees, Keith could see that the sky had almost returned to normal. Low in the sky, he could see a children’s moon- what the village people called it when the moon was visible in the daytime. However, it was a moon that was obviously starting to wane, which was highly unusual for a children’s moon; children’s moons typically only happen when the moon is full.

‘ _ Not the weirdest thing I’ve seen in the sky today, I guess _ .’ Keith thoughts quickly moved past the moon, and focused more on swirling around the black hole Keith had seen earlier in the morning. ‘ _ What did it mean? Why was the universe trying to send a message to me, specifically _ ?’

Keith shook his head, brushing through the trees. Later he’d pull leaves out of his hair from this walk, but that wasn’t unusual in this dense of a forest. The leaves crunched underfoot and have off a wonderfully sweet smell. Fall was Keith’s favorite season of the year because it made the forests that much more calming. Today, however, even the gently falling leaves didn’t calm him any. None of it made any sense.

_ ‘Patience, Keith. Patience yields focus.’ _ Shiro’s voice popped into Keith’s head, annoyingly. But rather than just shake the thought away, Keith took a deep breath. ‘ _ Ok, maybe I’m missing something. _ ’

He continued walking, weaving his way through the familiar forest. Until, suddenly, the forest seemed a little less familiar. The trees he’d passed by almost every day had deep gouges clawed into them. Following the scratched trees deeper into the forest, Keith noticed that rather than getting larger and more violent, the gouges were becoming smaller, and were even appearing lower on the trees. Finally, one tree didn't even have gouges on it- it just had a single, smearing, dried, brown handprint. 

_ ‘Is this blood? It definitely looks like blood. What is happening here?’ _

Keith touched the handprint, tentatively. As he did so, the entire sky lit up. He squinted against the glaring light, looked up, and saw that the sky was completely back to normal. The sun was in its’ high noon position, and glared right into Keith’s eyes.

‘ _ Okay, Universe, are you trying to tell me something? Can you just get to the point already?’  _ Keith shook his head in frustration for what felt like the hundredth time that day. After glaring into the sky for just a few moments, hoping that the Universe would get  _ his  _ message, Keith turned back to the handprint. Like the tree gouges, the handprint had not been in the forest when he’d walked through it the day before. However, it didn’t look entirely fresh- so it was a few hour old at least. This put Keith’s mind at ease; Whatever had made the gouges and was probably hunting the person that made the handprint had most likely vacated the area. However, the gouges in the tree were larger and more violent than anything Keith had seen in the forest before, so he wasn’t sure what he was dealing with or if it would come back. 

Keith pulled out his knife from its sheath, and walked slowly forward. 

Cautiously, Keith rounded a tree into a clearing, and found a person lying in the middle of the sunny patch. Immediately, Keith rushed to him and started checking him for wounds. Most noticeably, there were scratches all across his chest that had torn his shirt to shreds. He also had claw marks up and down his arms, wrapping around to his back. None of these seemed to be bleeding any longer, but the man was breathing shallowly and his face was ashen. 

Keith gently cradled the man in his arms, and he stirred briefly for a moment. Keith barely caught a glimpse of the man’s deep blue eyes before his eyes closed again and he shuddered against Keith’s chest.

Keith ran as fast as he could back to his home, trying to balance being careful and moving quickly. After laying the man on the bed, Keith rushed to start boiling water and cleaning the man’s wounds. 

Keith grabbed his basket of clean rags from the bottle shelf of his supply closet, before grabbing several bottles and herbs from the higher shelves. As the water boiled, he threw several ingredients into a bowl, and ground others in a mortar. When the water was finally bubbling, he pulled it off of the stove. He ladled water into his bowl of ingredients, carefully folding everything into a salve. Setting this aside, he took several rags and wet them in the now cooling water, and used those to gently clean the grime from the man’s wounds. After rinsing, reusing, and discarding several rags, Keith finally stepped back to grab the salve. He spread the green mush thickly over the scratches, and wrapped them in cloth. Finally, he soaked a cloth in icy well water, and laid this on the man’s forehead to cool his fever.

“Well, that’s almost all I can do.” Keith moved to start cleaning up, but turned abruptly back to the man. For the first time, he noticed his face. While the rest of his body seemed to be covered in scratches, his face had been left untouched. There was something entirely odd about the whole thing.


	4. Bones

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Keith is taking care of the mystery man he found in the woods, Shiro takes it into his own hands to find out what attacked the man.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did NOT mean to make this so long, but it ended up pretty good anyway. I'm still a few chapters behind, but I'm just doing this to have fun :P  
Hope you enjoy!

“Kid, where have you been, I’ve been waiting- what the,” Keith looked up from his chair by the bed to see Shiro standing in the doorway. “Keith, what happened?”

“First of all, I thought I told you not to call me kid. I may be your like adopted brother, but I’m not a kid. Secondly, I’m not really sure. I took a walk in the forest after you left, and I found this guy passed out. I did what I could to clean up his wounds, but now I guess I just have to wait and see if he’ll wake himself up.”

Shiro put his hand on Keith’s shoulder, trying to comfort him. “Hey, don’t worry. With you taking care of him, I’m sure he’ll be fine. You did remember to clean the wounds before applying the salve, right?”

“SHIRO!” Keith flipped around, throwing a clean rag at his older brother. Shiro threw his hands up in defense, side-stepping the rag.

“Hey, I was just asking. Anyway, do you need any help?”

Keith smiled, but just shook his head. “No, I’ve got this covered. It’s easy to change his rags and give him sips of water. What would really help would be if I knew what did this to him; what if it was a creature that left poison in him? I should be treating for that too.”

“Hey, you’re doing all you can. He hasn’t shown signs of poisoning, otherwise you’d know.”

“Thanks, Shiro. You should get back to the Harvest Moon Festival, I’m sure Curtis is waiting for you.”

Shiro smiled brightly, for just a second before turning his attention back to Keith. “Well, let me know if there’s anything I can do to help. You don’t have to take on this random wounded guy all on your own.”

  
  
  


Rather than returning straight to the Harvest feast, where he knew Curtis would be waiting, Shiro headed over to where Pidge had tea readings set up. By now, most of the celebrations had moved to the feast, so Pidge was sitting alone with their cups of tea. They looked up from what appeared to be their seventh cup as Shiro approached.

“Hey Pidge, you think you might slow down on the caffeine?”

Pidge smiled, and tossed their dregs in Shiro’s general direction. “Nope. Not on Harvest night- I get to have a cup with every person that wants a reading. And on Harvest Night the readings are always great.”

Moving a tea cup with only dregs in it in order to sit cross-legged in front of Pidge, Shiro laughed. “Yeah, because you’re so hyped up on caffeine you can’t see anything other than the easy to read good news.”

“Hey there. Who is the fortune teller in this community? Is it you? Did you spend years learning to read freaking cups of tea? No? I didn’t think so.”

Shiro chuckled. “Yeah, that’s true. Which is why I need your help.”

Pidge immediately perked up, and set aside the cup they had been reading. “With what?”

Shiro turned to make sure none of the villagers were in hearing distance, but no one was paying the two any attention. Everyone was too busy laughing, dancing, and eating to care about them.

“So, Keith found a guy in the woods today- that’s why he’s not here. He has wounds like I’ve never seen. I watched Keith change the bandages and, well, they were deep and huge. But whatever attacked this guy left him alive, and didn’t touch his face. So it wasn’t trying to eat or kill him.”

“And you want me to find out what the beast’s intentions were? I’m not an animal expert- I’ve never even so much as leafed through a bestiary.”

Shiro shook his head. “I need your help finding out what the beast was. Keith’s the only one who knows where the guy was found, and I don’t want him to have to take me out to the forest right now- he has enough on his mind. Besides, if there were clues out there he’d have found the thing. So I figure the best way to find it is to ask the collective intelligences of the Universe.”

Pidge snickered, “Collective intelligences of the Universe? Really? Most everyone calls it the Universe at this point. No one every uses long hand like that.”

Shiro sighed. “I just don’t think that the Universe is a great big being or anything. But we’re getting off track. I need to know what this thing is so I know if it’s a threat to anyone here. That’s my job, to protect you guys. So, do you have anything that can help?”

Pidge nodded, slowly, squinting their eyes just a little.

“Is that a yes?”

“That’s a maybe. Here, help me bring all of these tea cups back to my place and we can get started.”

“Are we using tea?” Shiro helped dump all of the dregs into a small burlap sack, and quickly stacked the cups. Pidge, on the other hand, was placing them hap-hazardly into a sack. When Shiro looked alarmed at this, Pidge grinned widely.

“They’re not going to break. I had Hunk help me craft them, and then Keith put strengthening spells in them. These are the teacups I use when five year olds want to know if what cake their mom is making for their birthday.”

They both walked briskly back to Pidge’s home, where Pidge dumped the sacks of cups and dregs on a small side table, before gesturing for Shiro to sit.

“Listen, I don’t know how well this is going to work. My crystal ball is still on the fritz, so I can’t peer backwards with that. Besides, the past isn’t something I’d really studied how to peer into with a ball anyway.”

“So, what can you do.”

“I’m going to use osteomancy, and see what the spirits can do.”

Shiro cocked his head to the side, confused. “Osteomancy, like bone reading? But isn’t that just to look into the near future?”

Pidge chuckled. “Well, we want to see the near past, don’t we? So let’s give this a whirl. Sit tight while I go grab my bones.”

Pidge scurried outside, to the small supply shed they had there, leaving Shiro feeling a little dazed at how fast they worked. 

“Grab my bones?” Shiro muttered to himself. “That’s not a weird thing to hear at all.”

It was only a minute or two later when Pidge came running back in with a basket of bones almost as large as they were. 

“I got a lot of these from the butcher! He owed me a favor so I asked him for bones, and he said to take as many as I needed. So, then, let's get started.”

They dug through the basket for a while before finding a large, relatively flat bone to use. They grabbed a thin, sharp knife, and started carving into the bone. It made an ugly grating sound, and Shiro winced as Pidge worked. 

“So, what do you do? Write about your problem and pour some tea on it?”

This made Pidge set down their knife, and laugh so hard they almost fell off of their chair. “Pour tea on it? Wow, you really didn’t pay attention when Coran was trying to teach you scrying last year. Pouring tea on it wouldn’t do  _ anything _ .”

Pouting, Shiro asked, “Well then, what do you do with it?”

Pidge grabbed the bone, and held it with a terrifying grin. “We BURN it.”

Without a second warning, Pidge chucked the bone into the crackling fireplace, causing the flames to jump and burn brighter. They watched it, while poking the logs around it to keep the fire burning. After several minutes the bone splintered and cracked, and the flames were suddenly extinguished.

“There we go!” Pidge happily pulled the bone out with a pair of tongs, and set it on the table. “Alright, lets see what attacked your brother’s new friend.”

Pidge delicately ran their finger along the cracks, analyzing the ways that they twisted around the words they’d scraped in. They found places where the cracks were larger, and followed them to the smaller seams. It was several minutes before they spoke.

“Okay, this doesn’t make a lot of sense. It seems to be telling two stories, based on how the cracks fissure out and then come back together. First, it tells of a giant, lets see, I think it says wolf. Well, it’s like it’s trying to say something but can only say wolf. So, there’s a wolf lurking in the night forest. It’s angry, but mostly afraid. And then it also talks about the fear of the human, the victim, as he tries to both defeat and outrun the wolf simultaneously. But the wolf story is on its own side of the bone, while the human is on the other, so it's like they’re in completely different forests. The wolf was hungry but is afraid to eat. The human is tired and afraid, lost. The wolf cannot find food he wants to eat. The human is going crazy, or at least thinks he is. He sees traces of a beast, but there’s no one else in the trees with him.”

“So it was a wolf?”

Pidge shook their head. “The spirits didn’t have a word for what it wanted to say, so it used wolf. Besides, a wolf didn’t attack the man. The man attacks himself.”

“That makes no sense, the man couldn’t have done that to itself.” Shiro stood, and started pacing.

“Well, I don’t get it either but that’s all the spirits know, I guess you’ll just have to wait until you can ask the man.”

Shiro sighed. “Yeah, I guess.”


	5. Luna Moth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith continues to watch over the man in his bed. Meanwhile, Lance has a terrifying dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHHHH I'm still behind for inktober BUT at least I'm still posting! Anyway, I know this chapter is really short- I didn't have a lot I wanted to do with the prompt to move the story along. Thanks for reading!

Keith fretted over the still sleeping man all night. He changed bandages, reapplied salves, and made him sip room temperature tea and broth. Of course, Keith knew that the man wasn’t going to heal overnight. He did know, however, that if the man’s raging fever didn’t go down then things could get ugly. But it only seemed to be getting worse; he was burning through the wet cloths Keith put on his forehead, and sometime well past midnight he started struggling like he was having nightmares. 

Lance woke in a dark room. He couldn’t see anything, but he could hear something fluttering gently around the room. He groped around, finding a small wooden table next to the bed. He kept feeling around, and was able to feel a small box of matches. It took a bit of fumbling around to figure out how to strike the match. Once he was able to do so, Lance saw that there was a lantern sitting next to the bed. He used the match to light it, and the room was filled with light. It was a bare room, with just the bed and table in it. On the ceiling, about a dozen luna moths were clustering together. As soon as Lance looked up and noticed them, they all dive-bombed into the flames of the lamp. With each moth, the flame jumped higher, catching more and more of the delicate wings with its heat.

“No!” Lance screamed, and tried to grab the lamp. His movements were clumsy and slow, so all he managed was to knock it over. The floor rug immediately caught fire, and the remaining moths jumped directly at that. Once they had all been devoured by the light, the flames started moving toward the bed. It licked at the bed posts, reaching for the blanket. Lance pulled back, huddling against the wall, and tried to kick at it like it were some corporeal being. 

“HELP! PLEASE!” He cried, but nobody came. The fire filled the whole room, which Lance had only just noticed didn’t have a door. The smoke burned his eyes and lungs. He was gasping for breath when the flames finally caught onto the blanket and

The man Keith had been watching suddenly bolted upright, with sweat dripping down the sides of his face. His eyes were manic, searching around the room for something that wasn’t there.

“The fire! Where…” He took some deep breaths, and his focus turned from the room to Keith, who was looking at him with concern.

And then he passed out again.

  
  



	6. Crystals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance wakes up and finds himself in a healer's house. An old friend comes to visit Keith.

Lance opened his eyes, and felt incredibly disoriented. He had no idea where he was, or how he’d gotten there. The room was dim, with only early morning sunshine coming in through a window to give light. Looking around, Lance saw that he was in someone’s house- there was a kitchen table across the room, adjacent to a cooking area. An open door revealed a closet full of jars, bottles, and burlap sacks. Directly next to the door, a bookshelf was overflowing with leather-bound volumes. Laying on the floor next to the bed, a pale and dark haired man was softly snoring.

Lance tried to sit up, and immediately winced. His entire torso stung from beneath a criss-cross of bandages. “What?”

As soon as Lance muttered in confusion, the man shot upright. “You’re awake!”

“Who are you? What happened?”

The man stood, and started folding up the blanket he’d been sleeping on. “I’m Keith. As for what happened, I was hoping you could tell me. I found you in the forest pretty beaten up, and brought you here. But I have no idea what caused those wounds of yours, and made you so sick. You’re lucky I found you when I did.”

Lance settled back on his pillow. “Oh. Well, thank you.”

Keith smiled, and started gathering clean cloth strips and salve ingredients. “It’s what I do- I’m a healer. Healing people is my job.”

Lance shook his head. “No, thank you for pulling me out of the forest. That isn’t part of your job description to go out saving people.”

“I only did what anyone else would have done. But, you’re welcome I guess. Anyone, I’m going to check your wounds and change your bandages. It might sting a little, so sorry about that.”

“Don’t worry, I can handle it,” Lance smirked, giving Keith a cocky look. But when Keith started peeling back the bandages, none too gently, he yelped.

“Nevermind! You’ve made your point!”

Keith stopped working so quickly, and started to be more gentle. “You’re the one that said you could handle it.”

Lance snortled, and held up his hands. “All right, you win. Now be more gentle, please.”

This made Keith smile, just a little. “Of course. I’m always gentle with my humble patients.”

The two continued to bicker good naturedly, as Keith carefully removed Lance’s bandages and looked at the wounds.

“Hmm, they’re getting a little too moist. I’m going to have to clean them out a little, and then leave them open to air to dry.” He turned, grabbing a bottle of liquid from the shelves. He poured it onto one of the cloths, completely saturating the fabric.

“Is that going to hurt?” Lance had visibly pulled back from Keith, as much as he could from his lying position on the bed.

Keith shrugged. “It’ll sting. It’s a clean salt water that’ll keep this from getting infected and not healing.”

“Ok, go ahead.” Lance closed his eyes, not wanting to watch Keith work. He took a sharp breath in through his teeth when the cloth hit his wounds, which made Keith chuckle just a little.

“It’s not that bad. Besides, I’ll be quick.” 

Lance turned his head, still not willing to watch what Keith was doing. It only took a few moments before Keith stepped back, and threw the now soiled rag into a basket.

“There, finished. What a trooper.”

Lance glared over at Keith, but it quickly turned into a smile. “Don’t patronize me.”

Rather than respond, Keith turned towards the kitchen. “Alright, princess, I expect you feed yourself now that you’re conscious. I’ll have some food ready in a few minutes.”

“How long have I been out?” 

Keith turned to see an anxious expression across Lance’s face, accented by the fact that Lance was nervously chewing on his lip. 

“Only a few days. Don’t worry, I’ll have you healed and back to your life in a week, at most.”

“Thanks.” Lance nodded, but continued to nervously chew at his lip when Keith turned back to making breakfast.

Keith was almost ready to bring the food over, when the door to the house banged open. A tall, graceful figure strode in, dumped the bag she was carrying on the table, and quickly embraced Keith.

“‘Lura!” Keith’s shocked, albeit muffled, voice came from somewhere within Allura’s hair. “What are you doing here?”

She smiled in a mysterious fashion, and moved over to the table. “I brought you stuff!”

She opened the bag, and mice and crystals tumbled out. The mice quickly scampered off of the table, and moved to look at Lance. Allura’s eyes followed the mice, and noticed Lance for the first time.

“Oh, quiznak, you scared me! Keith, why didn’t you tell me you had a patient!”

Keith shrugged, setting three mugs on the table. “I haven’t seen you in a few days.”

Allura laughed, something delicate but loud, like windchimes. “No, why didn’t you tell me when I came in! He startled me.”

“Maybe that was my plan,” Keith chuckled, as he handed a bowl of broth to Lance. “Drink that, but don’t choke. So, Allura, what did you bring me today? Just mice?”

Allura sat down at the table, and reached into her bag. “Well, luckily for you and this poor patient-”

“The name’s  _ Lance _ .”

“Ok, luckily for you and your unfortunate Lance, I have brought you some healing crystals! I found them in the mountains when I was hiking.”

Lance pushed awkwardly against his pillow, trying to sit up without moving his torso or spilling the broth. “What do healing crystals do?”

“Basically, they alter the energies in your body, just slightly enough that it redirects the healing elements to more efficiently help your wounds.”

Keith pushed a mug towards Allura, before responding. “Wow, thanks Allura. But you’ll have to show me how to use them.”

She smiled, and grabbed two of the rocks. “Of course.This first one is quartz, which is an emotional cleanser, and amplifies the effects of other stones. And this one is shungite- it has a more potent energy, which makes it useful in both physical and emotional healing.”

Allura stood, and stepped closer to the bed where Lance was. “Do you mind if I demonstrate on you?”

Lance nodded, too curious to come up with a verbal response. First, Allura took the quartz crystal and cupped both of her hands around it. Closing her eyes, she then held her clasped hands up to her mouth, as if she was focusing on the crystal completely. After a few seconds, she opened her eyes, and held the crystal with her right hand. 

“Ok, Lance, close your eyes, and take deep but gentle breaths. Focus on any positivity that you feel.” Allura hovered the stone above Lance’s forehead for several moments, before slowly moving it down toward his feet. She did this three times, before setting the crystal down on the table.

“You can open your eyes. So, what the quartz does is cleanse, but it works mostly in the emotional realm, which is why I had you close your eyes and focus inward. However, by doing so, we can use the effects of the quartz to amplify the effects of the shungite.” She picked up the shungite, and used it in the same forehead-to-feet motion she had used the quartz in. Instead of stopping there, she slowly moved the shungite back up from Lance’s feet to his torso, where the bulk of his wounds were. She held it there for a moment, while closing her eyes and focusing all of her energy on the shungite and Lance’s wounds. After several breaths, she pulled back and opened her eyes.

“What that does is redirects all of your body’s healing energies to wounds, and amplifies your body’s ability to self-heal.”

“Does it really work?” Keith questioned, as he stood to start cleaning up the bowls and mugs.

“That’s up to you to decide. It is an ancient tradition, found in many texts left behind by old healers. Oh! I almost forgot- the stones often collect negative energy in exchange for the positive energy that they give. Make sure to leave them out in moonlight every now and then too cleanse them, otherwise they won’t be as effective.”

Keith nodded. “Ok, cleanse them with moonlight, so they can cleanse my patients more effectively.”

“Yup!Anyway, I should let you get back to your patient. I’ll come by again later, though!”

“Bye, Allura! Thanks again.” 

Keith shut the door behind Allura, and turned around to find that Lance had fallen back asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I keep writing my chapters way longer than I mean to! But this one was super fun to write, so it's ok. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I liked writing it!


	7. Night Potions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance finally starts walking around! Now this story is going to get more interesting...

After a couple of days, Lance was able to sit up without having intense pain from his woulds. It still stung, but not nearly so much that it kept him on his back. Two days after that, Keith allowed Lance to get out of the bed and start walking around again. Although Lance’s legs hadn’t been wounded nearly as bad as his torso, Keith still limited and monitored Lance’s walking time.

“Keithie, it’s not like I’m going to hurt myself by doing an extra lap around your table here.” After having been unable to move for so long, Lance was ready to go outside and run. Keith didn’t agree with this.

“First of all, don’t call me that. Second, you were hurt really badly when I found you. You have to be extra gentle with yourself, otherwise you could cause some permanent damage. So, please listen to me, okay?”

For some reason, Lance wasn’t able to argue with the gentleness he found in the other man’s tone. 

“Fine.”

That first night after the argument was the first time Lance didn’t go to sleep before the sun set. Although his healer begged him too, Lance said he had too much energy to go to sleep.

“Well, if you’re going to stay up and be annoying, can you at least be useful?” Keith teased as he cleared away the dishes from dinner.

Lance immediately stood up, and started helping too. “I’m not annoying! Others find my wit and charm quite endearing. 

“Sure,” jabbed Keith, as he took the dishes from Lance and headed into the kitchen. “Now go sit back down if you’re not going to sleep.”

“I thought you wanted me to be useful!” Lance pouted, but sat down anyway.

“Of course. But I also don’t want you to hurt yourself, because then the healing process will start all over again.”

“Okay, then what can I do. Sit here and look pretty?” Lance put on his best charming face, making Keith laugh.

“That’s not really useful. No, I have to make some potions for one of the ladies in the village, and I guess you can help me out with that.”

Lance smiled, but after a moment his face fell. “Wait, but I don’t know how to make any potions.”

“That’s why I’m going to teach you. Don’t worry, I’ll do all the hard stuff.” Keith started pulling out items from the supply closet. A few vials, some jars, and some small sacks. He dumped all of these out onto the table before going back for a wooden crate. From this he pulled out a scale, a burned, measuring spoons, and stirring sticks. Finally he set five glass vials next to the other supplies. 

“So, what exactly are we making?” Lance had his head sideways, trying to read the faded label on one of the vials.

“A few different potions, actually. One is a healing tonic for minor sickness, another is a salve for blisters. And then there’s a safety potion for love.”

This last one made Lance’s ears feel hot, and he had to turn his head to try to hide his blushing. “Oh, lame. I was expecting some magic transformation stuff or something.”

“That’s not the kind of potions I work with- you need a major warlock to make some of those!” Throwing his hands in the air, Keith almost slapped the back of his ignorant patient’s head. 

“Well, fine, let’s get working then.”

Keith huffed, but sat down across from Lance anyway. He carefully set up the scale, then slid a small sack across the table to Lance. 

“Measure out a gram of this. But use a spoon- don’t touch the herb with your fingers.”

Immediately, Lance recoiled from the sack. “Why? Is it poisonous? Will it give me a rash?”

This made Keith chuckle. “No, of course not. But the natural oils on your hands might mess up the potion, and I don’t want to have to make it twice.”

“That makes sense, I guess.”

While Lance carefully did that, Keith poured a milky liquid into one of his glass vials, before putting it in place to be heated over the burned. 

“Ok, what now.” Lance gestured to the scale, to show that he had measured out the amount.

“Now we wait. Once this liquid starts bubbling, then we add that in and wait for it to turn blue. Then we seal it up in a vial and are finished.”

Lance nodded, satisfied. “Well, that’s easy.” 

“This is the easiest potion. The other ones may take a while.”

“What, like will we have to stay up _all _night?”

Keith shook his head, chuckling. “Not that long. I usually finish this kind of order around midnight. With your help, we might finish sooner.”

“If it’s so quick to make, why did you wait until night time to make these? Couldn’t you have made them earlier?”

Keith shook his head, then stood up. He opened the door, which let in moonlight. “These are all night potions. Once bottled, they have to be purified by sitting in the moonlight. If that doesn’t happen within a certain amount of minutes, they go bad. So it doesn’t make sense to make them before the moon is already out.”

Lance leaned back in his chair, and yawned, before speaking. “I guess that makes sense.”

“See! You are tired! Once we finish this one you should go to sleep.”

“But I want to help you make the rest of these!” He whined, and opened his eyes wider to try to seem more awake.

“There’ll be plenty of chances for that. But you need your rest.”

“I guess.” He sighed, and slumped against the back of the chair. “But sleep is all I ever do.”

The healer smirked, and ruffled Lance’s hair as he walked back to his seat. “No wonder your hair is so messed up then!”

Lance shrieked, and quickly patted his hair back down. “That’s on you!” 

“ME!” Keith made his eyes go wide to seem more innocent, and put his hands up. “I didn’t do anything!”

The two burst into giggles. Lance started laughing so hard that he bent over, clutching his sides. Unfortunately, this action made his wounds sting. 

“Ouch!” He yelped, and Keith quickly stopped laughing.

“Are you alright?”

Lance nodded, then stood to move over to the bed. “Yeah, I’m fine. But maybe I should go to sleep.”

“Ok then, I’ll try to be quiet with the other potions.”

Lance was about to crawl into bed when he stopped. “Wait, all this time I’ve been healing, I’ve been sleeping in your bed. I’m so sorry! Where are you sleeping?”

Keith shook his head. “Don’t apologize. You needed a good place to rest. Besides, I have a cot Shiro lent me set up on the front porch. It’s really nice to be sleeping under the stars.”

“O-kay, but honestly, I’m happy to sleep outside or on the floor if you want the bed. You need to sleep too, dude!”

“Lance, it’s fine. This is what I do. Now, go to sleep, so I can finish this potion.”

“Thanks, Keith. For everything.”

Keith just grunted in reply, but Lance didn’t miss how he smiled softly as he went to finish his potions. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! This chapter was really fun to write, even though I have NO IDEA how potion making works (so sorry if it's not actually accurate). It was so much fun, actually, that I missed my bus stop because I was working on it! But it was worth walking the extra four blocks, tbh.


End file.
